Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!

Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!

where do you see this "sent as" message do you mean it sents as a blue bubble that later changes to green?

are you sure its not start blue than its changing to green just before the sending bar is done? this could be it initial see the reciever is on 5.0 but either your data or his data connection is lost and it defaults back to sms

Didn't work for me... my friend is visiting China for business, I sent him a text (showing as iMessage, not Text Message in the chat bubble), we both have iPhone 4S's... it shows it as being sent as an iMessage, then after a few seconds, it changes to "Sent as Text Message" Go figure!

I live in China and iMessage doe not work for me, at least it does not work internationally. Everything leaves as SMS.

I live in China and iMessage doe not work for me, at least it does not work internationally. Everything leaves as SMS.

that's prolly because of china 3g firewall that won't let you send anything! I'm currently here in vietnam using 3g and something edge. It works like a charm texting my friends and family in the states and france.

Not sure about the prefixes, but if you hold the 0 key down long enough it turns to a +

But yes iMessage is free. As long as you are seeing a "blue" bubble with the person you are texting, and not green, it is using your phone's data plan and not your carrier's text messaging plan (which would cost you for international rates). If YOU are not in YOUR home country, then using that data to iMessage would probably be considered roaming data and probably cost you. But that's the only way it'd cost that I can think of.

that's prolly because of china 3g firewall that won't let you send anything! I'm currently here in vietnam using 3g and something edge. It works like a charm texting my friends and family in the states and france.

Then using anything against the internet would not work as its basically the same thing.

Then using anything against the internet would not work as its basically the same thing.

I'm guessing he hasn't enabled iMessage in the settings..

I was talking about ip address block. China carriers could have gone blocking imessage ip! Its like when we have facebook and twiter block, but anything else work here in some asians country such as china, and vietnam.

I was talking about ip address block. China carriers could have gone blocking imessage ip! Its like when we have facebook and twiter block, but anything else work here in some asians country such as china, and vietnam.

I see, that seems like a pain!
Didn't know any part of the world would do that to their users, seems silly!

But you can use either number or mail or both to receive iMessages at. Have you tried both by adding the second?

Quote:

Originally Posted by ET iPhone Home

Can you direct me where this can be turned OFF - not send an iMessage as text to prevent a charge? Thanks.

You can only do the opposite, but there is a way around it, if you don't want a charge then turn the phone into flight mode and turn on wifi and send a message to make sure you are not getting charged.

Can you direct me where this can be turned OFF - not send an iMessage as text to prevent a charge? Thanks.

Sure.
Settings > Messages > turn "Send As SMS" OFF.

When this is set to "OFF", iMessages that fail to send will not be sent and you will have to manually resend it.
When this is set to "ON", iMessages that fail to send will be sent as a text message automatically.